


If It's Stupid and It Works...

by imaginary_golux



Category: Aladdin (1992)
Genre: Multi, Some Swearing, aladdin jumping off of buildings, narrowly averted disasters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 12:43:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13717926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: The Genie has been captured by a neighboring kingdom. Aladdin has a plan to get him back. Jasmine is, understandably, a little dubious about the plan.Beta by my marvelous Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	If It's Stupid and It Works...

Aladdin glances back at the pursuing guards still laboring up the stairs, takes a deep breath, and leaps out the tower window, clutching his prize to his chest. He has no rug to use as a parachute, no idea if there’s anything to grab onto, nothing but hope, and the wind whistles past his ears as he falls -

And the Carpet catches him ten feet above the ground and goes swooping up into the sky. Aladdin flops down on his back and lets out his breath in a great relieved sigh. “Thanks, Carpet,” he says fervently.

Carpet can’t talk, of course, but it flaps a tassel at him, and Aladdin lies there watching the sky turn from sunset-orange to the deep spangled blue of night, as Carpet carries him across the desert.

“Why must it be _you_?” Jasmine had demanded, when Aladdin said he would do this thing. “We have an army - we have spies, and diplomats - why must you risk yourself, my love?”

“I owe a debt,” Aladdin had replied, “and you have to stay here and rule. You’re better at it than I am.” Jasmine hadn’t been able to argue with that. And so Aladdin had come to this distant city, dressed as a streetrat again, made his way by stealing bread and secrets, just as he used to in Agrabah. Secrets are easier to steal than bread, actually. People give them away, as often as not, to a listening ear and a pair of guileless eyes. And when he’d heard what he needed to, heard secrets from guards and cooks and servants out on their half-day of leisure, he put everything he’d learned together and made a plan, and - well -

Admittedly he hadn’t planned for the presence of an entirely _different_ troop of guards, nor the unfortunately high quality of the locks on the treasure room door, but everything worked out in the end and that’s what matters, right?

“So,” he says, “we don’t have to mention the whole jumping-off-a-tower thing to Jasmine, right?”

Carpet flutters its tassels in what’s probably a laugh. Aladdin sighs, and lifts his prize up so he can see it, gleaming in the moonlight. It’s old, and battered, and not terribly good-quality bronze.

Slowly, Aladdin sits up, cross-legged on the carpet, and rubs the lamp.

The Genie appears as a wisp of smoke, at first, spiraling up to become the familiar broad blue almost-human creature, a wholly unusual expression of distress on his face - and then he sees Aladdin and literally _lights up_ with joy. “Al!” he cries gleefully. “Al, what - how -?”

“Stole you back,” Aladdin says, grinning, and then, before the Genie can even draw breath to say anything further, “Genie, I wish you free.”

The manacles drop from the Genie’s arms, and the Genie swoops down and wraps himself around Aladdin, growing several _extra_ arms to hug him more thoroughly. “Al, you’re a treasure,” he murmurs, as Carpet sails serenely onward towards Agrabah. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Aladdin says softly. “And when we get home, Jasmine’s got some people working on figuring out how to keep you from ever being lamped again.”

“You’re _both_ treasures,” the Genie declares. “Marvels. Glories!” And then, just when Aladdin thinks he’s truly gotten away with everything, Carpet twitches, and the Genie says, in tones of great dismay, “What do you mean, he jumped off a ten-story _tower_?”

_Damn._ “Please don’t mention that to Jasmine?” Aladdin tries.

“Nice try,” the Genie says.

... _Double_ damn.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day 17 of the February Ficlet Challenge.
> 
> I am imaginarygolux on tumblr.


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